In case you need a dictionary with the June 18 issue of CityBeat

Did you know that it's someone's job to read the entire newspaper searching for everybody else's mistakes? Well it is, and this common method of editorial quality control is my job for the summer — I read every issue of CityBeat (yes, every single page, even the Eats: "Classes and Events," which is painful) and look for typos, misspellings, incorrect facts, AP style or grammar slip ups. I'm trying to catch all of it so the copy you read is clean and you aren't thinking "What the hell was CityBeaton this week?"

It's not just leisure reading. Sometimes the band names are so obscure I can't find them online to fact-check. Can I stop pretending I've heard of any of these groups?

If my enrollment in college means I read at a college level, then some of CityBeat's writers must have doctoral degrees because they're throwing out some pretty ostentatious vocabulary. I keep noticing crazy words I've never heard of and I can’t be
the only one. I am, however, the only one who has to check (*cough, editors*). I Google them, just hoping the writer used it incorrectly and I can smirk as I mark it with my red pen. So far, no dice.

Anyways, here’s a roundup of the words that gave me a double
take this week. I’ll grab the dictionary so you don’t have to (you probably weren’t
planning on it anyway).

Adroit: skillful, adj.

OK,
congratulations if you already knew this one, I felt the need to double-check.
Turns out I’m not so adroit at vocab, ha.

In the paper: “the sisters are adroit
in doing makeup for film production,” in “Style Sisters” about makeup maven duo
Andrea and Ashley Lauren. Sounds like the pair is adroit in business savvy as
well, they were the first in the Midwest to open up a blowout bar.

Cognoscenti: someone with an informed appreciation, n.

*Pick
of the week* Maybe I just like it because of its Italian origin; cognoscenti rolls off the tongue. I’d never heard it before, but now I’ll be
sure to tell everyone what a shopping cognoscenti I am.

In the paper: “the soccer
cognoscenti” in this week's cover story, “Ballin’ in Brazil.” You can pretty much get the definition
from context clues, but using the French version of the word, synonym
"connoisseur," wouldn’t have been the same because, to me, it evokes food. Bonus
tidbit: Both cognoscenti and connoisseur are derivatives of the Latin
cognōscere, which means, “to know.”

Diaspora: the dispersion
of a group from the same culture, n.

I
think diaspora may be experiencing a moment lately. I’ve run into it a few times
lately, once in reference to the relationship between Russia and the Ukraine.

In the paper: “my family’s diaspora” in
Kathy Wilson’s “A Day in the Life.” Wilson uses it to describe the splintering
of her immediate family over the years in a piece about randomly running into her brother and a thoughtful longtime reader.

Eponymous: work named after its creator or central character, adj.

I’m
surprised this word isn’t used more often, considering all the situations in
which it could be applied. I’m thinking, Spongebob,
Forrest Gump and *NSYNC’s self-titled
album, all eponymous.

In the issue: “Those Darlins
eponymous debut album,” in Sound Advice. Spoiler alert, the album is called “Those Darlins.”

Incisive: keen, acute, adj.

From
seeing incisive in the subhead, I assumed metal band Agalloch's music could also be
described as “biting.” From reading about the band’s woodsmoke, wrought iron
and moss-informed music sensibility, however, I had to check and see if there
was another definition. Turns out incisive also means “keen,” which more
closely describes the band’s discipline and vision.

No,
I don’t remember the story it was used in a week ago, but it’s just a noun for
a blend or combination. Like, “I
enjoy an amalgam of iced decaf from Lookout Joe, Coffemate creamer and
Splenda.”

Check
back next week, too. I’ll be documenting the growing body of words known to me here on the blog until August.

Rachel Podnar writes "From the Copy Desk" weekly from her desk as CityBeat's intern copy editor. Her job is to find and correct everybody else's mistakes, occasionally referencing a dictionary to check one of our more pretentious educated writers' choices of words. She rounds up and recaps the best ones here.

CityBeat wins six first-place awards and earns high honor for photography

We thought it was a little weird when the Cleveland Press
Club told us it “highly recommended” we attend its awards ceremony on June
6, largely because its representative put the words "highly recommend" in quotation marks and we
couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic — maybe someone just wanted to see
us drive 250 miles to pick up a bunch of “last-place” trophies. That sort of
thing can be funny under the right circumstances.

It turns out we did pretty well, though, winning first-place
in six non-daily categories, including the Best in
Ohio: Alternatives contest. Our staff photographer Jesse Fox earned second-place for Best in Ohio: Photographer, a high honor as she was up against all the big
papers and magazines in the state.

Here's a full list of winners and finalists in the statewide competition.CityBeat's work that earned recognition is listed below. Congrats to all, including our former colleagues who now work for the Cincinnati Business Courier
and Vox Media. (Missu guys!)

Out of 100 of the largest U.S. cities ... not bad

Cincinnati has finally been released from its icy prison, and the citizens have thawed out and are ready to start rebuilding their relationship with the sun. Time to buy a plane ticket for California, right? Nope. Time to explore our own beautiful city.

A study done by WalletHub, an online personal finance resource, compared the 100 largest U.S. cities using 20 key metrics based on cost expenses and public attractions to find the best place to have a “staycation.” (A staycation is a break from working, but not traveling outside of your city.) Cincinnati was ranked third, officially winning the battle of Ohio for best city; Cleveland was ranked 13th and Columbus can be found on the latter half of the list — specifically at No. 66.

Here are just a few of the ratings that went toward our third place win (as computed by the site):

1st: Public golf courses per capita

2nd: Swimming pools per capita

5th: Tennis courts per capita

14th: Museums per capita

19th: Spas per capita

63rd: Cost of a movie ticket

53rd: Cost of a maid service

1st: Number of parks per capita

Can’t argue with the facts, especially the fact that Cincinnati has the most public golf courses per capita in the nation. We’ve got public golf courses by airports — Reeves golf course at the Lunken Airport Playfield, where you can play 18 for less than $40 — and we even have golf courses in our amusement parks — The Golf Center at Kings Island, where $41 gets you 18 holes and a cart.

If golf isn’t your thing — after all, Cincinnati’s summers are hot and damp (Wallethub ranked Cincinnati weather at 33rd) — not to fret, Cincinnati is second in the nation for swimming pools per capita, so staycationers should pack a bathing suit. (Cleveland received the No. 1 rank for swimming pools, a small victory … but also one that opens up a world of jokes involving the Browns and pools.)

It is not a joke, however, to say Cincinnati has myriad beautiful parks, and now we have the statistics to prove it: We’re No. 1. Ault Park, Eden Park, Bellevue Park, Washington Park, Sawyer Point & Yeatman’s Cove, Burnet Woods — wherever you are in Cincinnati there’s a park. Sit on a bench and enjoy them.

This study serves as an embodiment of what most Cincy natives say about the city: it’s up and coming. People that don’t even live here are telling us how good we have it. Put in a time request at work today and start planning a Cincinnati staycation.

Cleveland Press Club, Cincinnati SPJ recognize our stuff

Last year, CityBeat
won several local and statewide awards for journalism produced in 2012, which
we celebrated by drinking a lot and breaking a couple easily replaceable
objects. (Someone also stole some coasters from a law office, but we’re not as
proud of that.)

This year we did pretty OK again, receiving six first-place
and 13 runner-up awards from the Cincinnati chapter of the Society of
Professional Journalists for work produced in 2013. Six pieces are also
finalists in the Cleveland Press Club’s statewide awards, which will be
announced June 6.

CityBeat
photographer Jesse Fox won the Cincinnati SPJ’s “Best Feature Photography”
award for a collection of work that is also a finalist in the Cleveland
contest. Arts & Culture Editor Jac Kern’s “I Just Can’t Get Enough” column
won the local “Lifestyle Reporting” visual communication category, and
Contributing Arts Editor Steven Rosen won the Cincy SPJ’s “Arts/Entertainment
Critique” award for a collection of his "The Big Picture" columns. Editor Danny Cross won first in the “Editorial” category for
an angry essay titled “Cincinnati’s 1 Percent,” and CityBeat’s “The Answers Issue” took first for “Lifestyle Feature.” CityBeat also won “Best Weekly Newspaper”
in Cincinnati and is a finalist for “Best Non-Daily Newspaper in Ohio:
Alternatives."

Other finalists for the Cleveland Press Club’s statewide
awards were “The Linguistics of Legislation,” by Hannah McCartney, Maija Zummo
and Julie Hill in the “Features: General” category, and German Lopez’s
collection of streetcar coverage in “Community/Local Coverage.” Lopez’s
investigation into Ohio’s dysfunctional private prison, “From the Inside,” is a
finalist for the “Public Service” award, as is Cross’ look into the
controversial firing of Loveland High School’s drama instructor, “Legally
Banned,” for “Arts and Entertainment” reporting. CityBeat Music Editor Mike Breen was again recognized for music
writing, as he is a finalist for the Press Club’s “Reviews/Criticism” award.

The following is a complete list of work recognized by the
Cincinnati Society of Professional Journalists and Cleveland Press Club:

They like us

"As much of America decamped for the suburbs or the coasts, artists, craftspeople, and entrepreneurs rebuilt entire Cincinnati neighborhoods alongside impassioned longtimers," reads an article from the April 2014 issue of National Geographic Traveler.

Cincinnati is more and more getting recognition for our renaissance attitude in national media, and this article touches on everything from our breweries to the 21c and the city's vast collection of every-era architecture and food and nightlife.

Good news is they're having a super sale

Over-the-Rhine vintage shop Atomic Number Ten is closing, or as owner Katie Garber puts it on the shop's twitter page, hopefully moving on to bigger and better things.

The shop, which specializes in finds for him, her and home from the '50s to the '90s, opened in fall of 2009. And with only a couple of weeks left on its Main Street lease (1306 Main St., OTR, facebook.com/AtomicNumberTen), Garber is having a crazy sale — a "last hurrah" sale. All clothing is $20 or less (some items are even selling for $1), housewares are $10 or less and everything else is discounted at 50 percent off. The store will be keeping normal hours through Jan. 18: noon-6 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday; noon-4 p.m. Sunday.

Says Garber of her customers in a blog post, "We really hope you can make it in to say goodbye. You've been so supportive and we can't thank you enough! It's been a great ride!"

Livability.com ranks the Queen City No. 1 in terms of retirement locales

Livability.com — an online resource that explores what makes small to mid-sized cities great places to live, work and visit — has ranked Cincinnati as the No. 1 place to retire.

Using data collected from their list of the Top 100 Best Places to Live (Cincy ranked 73), the editors concluded that due to our highly ranked hospitals, affordable housing and vast collection of parks and cultural amenities, the Queen City is the BEST. Yes. The best. Beating out cities like Pittsburgh and St. Louis.

According to a press release, “If the only factor in your retirement planning is playing golf on a daily basis, your choices are pretty clear,” Matt Carmichael, livability.com editor, says. “But for everyone else, we wanted to put together a list of great cities that have more to offer than green grass and easy tee times. Not everyone moves when they retire, but for those who do, here are 10 cities and towns to consider.”

And the piece extolls the benefits of local gems like Krohn Conservatory, the continuing education program at the University of Cincinnati, the Reds, the Bengals, our minor league teams, the Cincinnati Museum Center, Horseshoe Casino and more.

Snow angels are for rookies. And snow penises, evidently, are for University of Cincinnati students.

Somehow the folks at Hypervocal and Uproxx caught wind of this before us because we spent all morning trying to fix our blogging system, but someone took advantage of Monday night's snowfall in a non-traditional way, if by non-traditional you mean drawing a humongous awkwardly anddisproportionately-shaped penis on the field at University of Cincinnati's Nippert Stadium.

According to the Hypervocal and Uproxx stories, a UC student took a photo of the public work of art and Tweeted the image, but deleted it later because she felt guilty about it . Of course, by then it was too late, and now it will live down in penis-themed viral web content forever.

I want to make a lot of jokes about this, but Hypervocal and Uproxx have already had a BALL doing that themselves.

Slain soldier's cartoon character grave marker stirs up controversy

Twenty-eight-year-old army sergeant and Ohio native Kimberly Walker was found dead in a Colorado hotel room earlier this year, allegedly murdered by her boyfriend, a soldier, on Valentine's Day. Walker loved SpongeBob SquarePants, so her family had Walker's headstone carved to resemble the bepantsed sponge. She was buried at Spring Grove cemetery with plans to have her grave marked by an almost 7-foot headstone. Spring Grove initially let the family place the stone sponge, but then changed their mind and removed it citing that the piece didn't fit with cemetery guidelines.

Here's a WLWT video on the situation presented without comment because the story is weird, sad, sort of funny in a dark way and both sides have pretty valid points:

Ohio SPJ award for Rock and Roll Commentary among six CityBeat submissions recognized

CityBeat Music
Editor Mike Breen for the second straight year has won the Ohio Society of
Professional Journalists statewide contest for Best Rock and Roll Commentary. The Central Ohio SPJ chapter this week recognized work from all across
Ohio, with CityBeat’s entries falling
into the "Less than 75,000 Circulation" category.

Breen also won first place this year for his music writing entered into the local
SPJ chapter’s annual awards.

CityBeat also won
first place for Best Website and placed second in the Best Weekly Newspaper
category. CityBeat eagerly
anticipates finding out what [expletive] publication won first place and
intends to mail its leaders a sarcastic token of congratulations once we figure
out who they are.

CityBeat’s Best of
Cincinnati Issue (issue of March 28) won second in the Best Special Section
category, and two investigative stories were also recognized.

Staff Writer German Lopez’s investigation into the failures of
Ohio’s prison privatization plan (“Liberty for Sale,” issue of Sept. 19)
won secondplace for Best Criminal Justice Reporting, and CityBeat Editor Danny Cross was runner up in the Best Investigative Reporting category for his uncovering of how Western & Southern Financial Group could have purchased the Anna
Louise Inn long before entering into a dirty legal battle that ultimately
forced the nonprofit to give up its building ("Surrounded by Skycrapers," issue of Aug. 15).

The awards will be presented at the annual Ohio SPJ ceremony at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium on Oct. 5.